Kenya: A Global Feminist Critique

Under a pristine blue sky on the University of Nairobi campus, Africans in bright robes and turbans mingled with denimed Europeans wearing punk haircuts, Muslims behind veils, and Americans in trim safari gear. Thousands of women from some 130 countries poured into Kenya's capital city last week for two conferences to mark the end of the United Nations Decade for Women, one sponsored by the U.N., the other, called Forum '85, a parallel meeting of non-governmental organizations. Many had high hopes that the gatherings would provide a sisterly exchange of ideas and strategies. "You will see something that is not a conference but an encounter, a happening . . . a meeting of the minds of women," predicted Barbadian Dame Nita Barrow, convener of Forum '85.

Skeptics, however, warned that the affair could prove a well-publicized waste of time. The U.S. especially feared that Nairobi could become a reprise of the 1980 conference on women in Copenhagen, where discussions about employment, health and education were sidetracked by heated confrontations among delegates over Zionism, imperialism, racism--essentially every ism but feminism.

At the outset, however, such concerns were forgotten amid a conventioneers' snarl over accommodations. Although Kenya had spent part of its $1.6 million investment to spruce up Nairobi's streets, buildings and dormitories, authorities were unprepared for the huge turnout. In addition to the 3,000 delegates registered for the official conference, some 10,000 arrived for Forum '85. The Forum turnout was more than three times the number expected, and government authorities tried to forestall a crush by announcing that Nairobi's 4,000 hotel rooms would be held for the delegates to the official conference. But the hundreds of Forum participants who had made deposits for hotel rooms were outraged to learn that their reservations were invalid. At the New Stanley Hotel, American Feminists Bella Abzug and Betty Friedan staged a friendly protest in the lobby, with Friedan joining the ousted in a chorus of We Shall Not Be Moved. Eventually, solutions were found: many women tripled up, while some transferred to spartan, $17-a-night dorm rooms on campuses around Nairobi.

As the hotel imbroglio was playing out in Nairobi, the U.S. delegation was in Washington enjoying a White House send-off lunch of veal vol-au-vent and cantaloupe sorbet. At each place setting was a commemorative bronze medallion wrapped in white paper and pink ribbon. President Reagan's remarks to the group included a few fatherly jests about his daughter Maureen, who is to head the delegation, but his message was earnest. The "business of the conference is women, not propaganda," he reminded them.